by E. Walsh
“Didn’t you?” Jonah repeated.
“I only did it because the team needs you,” Steve finally answered. “We were able to win without you, but we just got lucky. The other team wasn’t having a good day, either. If they were, we’d have lost for sure.”
“We didn’t win because of the other team’s weak performance,” Jonah told him. “We won because of you.”
“But I can’t do that every game. I can’t do it alone.”
Jonah fell silent.
“The team needs you,” Steve reiterated. “Besides, you’re my roommate. How could I just ignore that something was bothering you?”
“How did you even know?”
“Anyone could tell something was bothering you.”
“I mean, how did you find out what was bothering me? I didn’t tell you.”
Steve took off his shoes. “It would have been easier if you did. I had to find out the hard way. You know, make some calls. Do a bit of investigating.”
“You what?”
“Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard to find out that your sister was in the hospital.”
Jonah exhaled. “You rich people can do anything, can’t you?”
“Well, we can’t stop stupid people from wanting to run the country or Hollywood from making lousy remakes,” Steve said. “I’m sorry if I snooped around. I just…couldn’t leave you alone.”
Jonah shook his head. “I’m not mad at you. I’m…thankful, actually. But hey, I’m going to pay you back someday, understand?”
“You can pay me back with interest when you’re an NBA superstar.”
Jonah grinned.
“Promise me you’ll tell me what’s bothering you next time?” Steve added.
“Why do you care so much? What’s with you and this whole brotherhood thing? Don’t you have a brother?” Jonah asked.
“I do, but he’s eight years older than me. And he’s a jerk. He’s always hated me.”
“Well, you can be annoying.”
“I think it’s because I’m more good-looking.”
Jonah laughed.
“I’m not as good-looking as my sisters, though,” Steve went on. “I have twin sisters, Tiffany and Tasha. They’re both fashion designers, although everyone mistakes them for the models.”
“They should have been actresses. Then they could be each other’s doubles.”
“Tiff wanted to be an actress, I think, but Tasha didn’t. And either they both agree on something or they don’t do it.”
“Doesn’t that suck?”
Steve shrugged. “I guess you can’t blame them. They were stuck with each other before they were born. You know, I used to wish I had a twin.”
“One of you is more than enough.”
Steve chuckled. “I decided, though, that it’s more fun when there’s only one of you. No one to measure up to, no one to compare yourself with—no one to compete with all the time.”
“No one to share clothes with.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Tiff and Tasha only have one closet. A big one.”
Jonah nodded. “Girls and clothes. Even my ten year-old sister has more clothes than me.”
“So you have two sisters?”
“Meg and Abby,” Jonah answered.
“They’re lucky they have a brother who cares for them as much as you do.”
Jonah looked at Steve. “Was that a compliment?”
“Anyway, to answer your question about brotherhood, I guess it’s just because I’ve never really had friends. I mean, I had friends, but I never felt like I belonged with them or that we had a real bond. I just want to experience that while I’m in college, since someone told me college is where the real friendships start.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“Friends?” Steve extended his hand.
Jonah gripped Steve’s hand. “Friends.”
They shook hands. The gesture hung in the air just a moment too long before Jonah pulled his hand away. Now that his mind wasn’t occupied with Meg’s hospitalization anymore, he was noticing Steve again. His presumptions, his attitude—it no longer annoyed Jonah, though.
“Wanna play ball?” Steve asked.
Jonah nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
* * *
Chapter Eight
For the next several games, Jonah and Steve played seamlessly. Their plays work, they made their shots, and they racked up assists. Their Coach and teammates were proud and the other teams in the league began to keep an eye on them. They were truly a dynamic duo, working together to outwit the defense, disrupt the other team’s offensive rhythm, and inspire and energize the team. Some people even nicknamed them “Mc-West”, describing them as the most impressive pair the league had ever seen and the main reason why the Jackals made it past the elimination round in the regional playoffs.
Off the court, Steve and Jonah became inseparable. They no longer argued. The resentment was gone. Steve’s kindness has challenged Jonah’s preconceptions, and he took it in stride, glad to have a new friend. Instead of bickering and threatening to draw a line down the center of the room, they listened to music together, bought food for each other, and sometimes they stayed up just talking to each other in the dark. They even helped each other with homework. At least, Jonah did.
“Seriously, Steve, you should go get a tutor,” Jonah told him once. “I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, too, you know.”
“But you’re the only one who can make me understand all these letters and numbers. Seriously, how can letters mean numbers and how do they all make sense?”
“You know what I’m wondering about? How you got through high school. Don’t tell me you paid off your math teacher.”
“Shut up. My math teacher was a woman and she liked me.”
“Oh. So you slept with her?”
“No.” Steve gave him a look of disgust. “Man, your image of me is so inaccurate.”
“What? She just passed you because she had a crush on you?”
Steve shrugged. “Whatever effect I had on her, I definitely don’t have it on Professor Jenkins.”
“Tough luck. She doesn’t think twice when it comes to failing students. She thinks education is our responsibility, not hers.”
“Which is why you have to help me,” Steve told him. “I can’t fail.”
Jonah glanced at the book Steve was reading.
“Please?” Steve begged. “I’ll buy you pizza, two pizzas if you want.”
“I’m getting tired of pizza.”
“Steak then. I’ll buy you steak.”
Jonah paused. Tempting.
“You can borrow my car for a week,” Steve added.
Jonah’s eyes grew wide. “You’d lend me your Porsche?”
“Why not? I can have another one sent over.”
“Braggart.”
“Are you gonna teach me or not?”
“Hmm…”
“What? Do I have to blow you, too?”
The image fleetingly crossed Jonah’s mind, but he pushed it away before his body could react to it.
“Fine. Steak and the Porsche, then.”
Steve frowned. “You drive a hard bargain. You should be a businessman.”
Jonah ignored him. “Do we have a deal?”
“Deal.”
Jonah grinned. One of them was rich, but not so smart, the other had brains, but no money. They were a perfect pair, all right. At this rate, they were going to be best friends.
And Jonah was beginning to think there was nothing wrong with that.
* * *
Chapter Nine
“Is something wrong with Steve?” Duncan asked two weeks later.
Jonah sighed. Steve had missed practice. Again. This would be the third time in a week. Not good.
And the worst part was Jonah didn’t even know why.
He shrugged. “He hasn’t been telling me anything.”
All Steve had told him was that he was taking care of something important. He wouldn’t even giv
e a clue as to what it was. So much for being best friends.
“Well, tell him if he misses the next practice, he won’t be playing in the next game,” Duncan said.
“What?”
“I don’t want to do it. We need Steve now that we’re in the quarters, but we need a focused, reliable Steve—not one too lazy to show up for practice. Tell him he needs to get his head out of his ass if he wants to stay on the time.”
Jonah nodded. “I understand. I’ll tell him.”
*
Jonah planned to confront Steve that evening, but when Steve finally came home that night, he was drunk, drunker than Jonah had ever seen him.
Jonah sighed. “First, you skip practice for the third time in a row without telling anyone why, then you come home waster. What’s going on with you?”
Steve grinned before talking in a slurred voice. “You sound like my wife.”
Jonah frowned, though he had to admit he did sound a little like a wife scolding her husband for coming home late and drunk. “Quit it, McDaniels, you might own the team, but if you don’t get your shit together and show up at practice tomorrow, you’re sitting the next game out.”
Steve snorted.
“Duncan means it,” Jonah added.
“Who cares about Duncan?”
“Well, you should if you want to stay a part of the team.”
“Listen to you talk. You didn’t even want to stay with the rest of the team before.”
“But I did because I’m serious about basketball. Are you?”
Steve chuckled. “You really look cute when you’re angry. Do you know that?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“That’s why I liked to tease you before.”
“Steve, this is serious. The team needs you. We’ve made it this, far but if you’re going to act like a…”
“Shut up or I’m going to kiss you.”
“You’re not—”
Steve planted his full lips against Jonah’s. At first, Jonah couldn’t move, too shocked the fact that Steve was actually kissing him. Just as he was about to close his eyes and kiss Steve back, Steve fell on top of him, unconscious. After a few more seconds, he started snoring.
Jonah stared at the ceiling, debating if he should wake Steve or just pass out, too.
*
The next day, Steve didn’t seem to have any memory of his antics and Jonah tried to pretend it never happened. He acted as normally as he could. Steve, however, was not back to his usual self. Although he finally attended practice, he wasn’t focused or interested in it and when the next game came along, Steve didn’t deliver. He missed his shots. He turned the ball over. He hardly played defense. Ultimately, he threw away the game. Jonah tried to save it, but the opposing team was too good. It was the quarterfinals, after all.
As the team moped in the locker room, a furious Duncan pushed Steve against his locker.
“What’s wrong with you, man?” he asked angrily. “What the hell happened out there?”
Steve simply looked away, not an ounce of fight in him.
“What? You don’t have an excuse for messing up? No apology?”
“Why should I apologize?”
“Why should you apologize?” Duncan placed his hands on hips as he nodded, then punched the locker next to Steve’s. “Because you messed up, McDaniels. You messed up big time. This was the first game of the quarterfinals.”
“I don’t care.”
“What?”
Steve looked at him. “I said I don’t—”
Duncan raised his fist to punch him, but Nate stopped him. “That’s enough, Duncan.”
Duncan glared at Steve. “You might not care because you’re just passing through. Whatever happens here in college, you’ll still be a billionaire. You’ll still be able to see the world and buy everything you want. But we’re not like that. Our future hinges on every game we play. That’s why we care. That’s why we need to win.”
He paused to take a deep breath and continued in a calmer tone.
“I thought you were different, Steve. I really did. But you’re just another spoiled brat.”
Steve said nothing.
“Get out of my sight,” Duncan told him. “If you don’t want to win like the rest of us, then there’s no room for you on this team.”
Steve ran away the moment Duncan stepped back. Jonah chased behind him.
“Steve, wait!”
But Steve didn’t wait. He ran to his car and sped off. Jonah tailed him to the edge of the city until Steve finally stopped at a hotel. Confused, Jonah followed him inside.
“Steve, wait!” he pleaded again.
Surprised, Steve turned to him. “What are you doing here?”
“I want to talk to you.”
“There’s nothing for us to talk about.”
Jonah followed him into the elevator. They stood in awkward silence, waiting for the other passengers to get off. The doors opened on the fourth floor and Steve bolted. Jonah chased behind him.
“Steve, whatever it is you’re going through, you can tell me.”
Steve didn’t answer, heading straight to his room and unlocking the door.
Jonah shoved his arm in the door so Steve couldn’t close it and followed him inside.
“Duncan didn’t mean what he said,” Jonah continued. “And I know you didn’t mean what you said, either.”
“How would you know?” Steve slammed the door shut. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”
Jonah’s eyes narrowed. “I know you’d never turn your back on your team or on your friend. I’m your friend, aren’t I?”
Steve shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Then make me.” Jonah grabbed his arm. “When I was in a pinch, when I lost my way, you helped me. Please let me do the same for you. Let me help you.”
“You can’t help me.”
“I’ll try anyway.”
Steve looked into his eyes, hesitating.
“Please, Steve, tell me what’s going on.”
Steve wrenched his arm away. “You wanna know what’s going on? Fine. I’ll tell you what’s going on. I got dumped, that’s what.”
For a moment, Jonah couldn’t speak. That was it? Steve was dumped? Jonah didn’t even know he had a girlfriend. Besides, what kind of girl would dump someone like him?
“Listen, man. It’s her loss.” Jonah squeezed Steve’s shoulder. “You’ll find another girl, I’m sure. A better one.”
They weren’t exactly the words he wanted to say, but if they were the words Steve needed to hear, so be it.
“It’s not her,” Steve said softly.
“I’m sure she has problems, too.”
“What I mean is it’s not a ‘her’,” Steve spoke louder. “It’s a ‘him’.”
Jonah looked at him in confusion. What?
“I didn’t have a girlfriend, Jonah. I had a boyfriend. I’m gay.”
Jonah froze, unable to believe what he’d just heard. Steve liked guys?
“So you see, I’m not fit to be a part of the Jackals,” Steve went on. “In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever be a professional basketball player.”
“Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true. I’ll never amount to anything.”
“Is that what your…boyfriend said?” Jonah asked curiously.
“Just leave me alone, Jonah.” Steve shook his hand off. “You’re not supposed to be here with me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I might kiss you,” Steve confessed. “I’ve been wanting to, you know, even when I had a boyfriend. Now that I don’t have one, well, I just might do it.”
Jonah paused. So that kiss Steve had given him the other night was no accident?
“For fuck’s sake, Jonah, you—”
“Do it.” The words left Jonah’s mouth before he could think.
Steve turned around slowly. “What did you say?”
“I said do it,”
Jonah urged, serious now. “Kiss me.”
Now it was Steve who looked confused.
“Kiss me,” Jonah repeated.
When Steve still didn’t do anything, Jonah grabbed his arms and kissed him instead, sealing Steve’s lips with his own. It was a fierce clash of lips from the start that only grew wilder as Steve responded, lips parting so tongues could mingle and devour each other hungrily. Their hands wandered across each other’s hard bodies, touching, rubbing, squeezing. Jonah wasn’t drunk, but he might as well have been, his head spinning as his temperature rose.
When Steve rubbed his crotch, Jonah gasped, trembling. Steve stroked his hard cock through his shorts then slipped his hand inside, his fingers wrapping around the sensitive flesh. Skillfully, Steve moved his hand up and down, the pad of his thumb pressing against the swollen tip of Jonah’s cock every so often. Jonah grabbed his arms as his knees shook, each stroke bringing him closer to release.
Before he could reach it, though, Steve stopped and in the next moment, he was on his knees in front of Jonah, lowering his shorts and his boxers so that Jonah’s cock was right before his eyes. He kissed it reverently, then started sucking.
Jonah grabbed Steve’s hair, trying to hold on as the pleasure became even more intense. He wasn’t able to hold back, though, and within minutes, he came, filling Steve’s mouth.
Jonah was breathless. He sat on the edge of the bed, exhausted, but felt a fresh burst of vigor as he watched Steve undress, revealing inch after inch of bare skin.
Damn that perfect body.
One look at Steve’s cock, hard, long and elegantly curved and Jonah’s own sprung back to life. Steve grinned then pushed him down on the bed. Again, they kissed while Steve ground their cocks together. Then Steve did something that Jonah had never expected him to do. He straddled Jonah’s hips, grabbed his cock, and guided it to his ass. He held his breath as he lowered himself little by little.
As the tip of Jonah’s cock entered Steve, Steve gasped but he didn’t stop. Jonah watched him, mesmerized by his features twisting in both pleasure and pain and when he was completely sheathed inside Steve, he let out a gasp of his own.
Damn, Steve was tight. But it felt incredible.
As Steve started moving, the sensations heightened, the pleasure turning into ecstasy. Before long, Jonah was moving as well, grunting along with Steve and when the skin around his cock hugged him even tighter, he came a second time, his cum spurting inside Steve even as Steve’s cum gushed out to land on his shirt.
